AndGlitch!
by Tactition101
Summary: Instead of trying to deny what she is, Vanellope embraced her Glitch side and worked to be able to control it. And with control comes the opportunity to discover what a certain virus has done to her game and to fix it.


And...Glitch!

Summary: Instead of trying to deny what she is, Vanellope embraced her Glitch side and worked to be able to control it. And with control comes the opportunity to discover what a certain virus has done to her game and to fix it.

Story Start: Time: Two Years Before Wreck It Ralph Location: Diet Cola Mountain

Almost no one knew that Diet Cola Mountain was actually hollow and held what looked like what could have been a bonus level that looked down over a bubbling pit of cola with Mentos stalactites. Of course, if anyone had by some almost numerically impossible chance stumbled onto said bonus level, their attention would have been more drawn to the blue blur that was in the vague shape of a girl that seemed to stretch as it was constantly shooting around the place with a sound similar to a sparking wire as it moved from the ground around the cola to the walls and even into the air under the stalactites.

In a small niche dug out on one of the walls closest to the exit of the boiling pool of liquid a digital watch gave five beeps and the blur suddenly switched from moving around the area in a random pattern and shot straight toward the Mentos stalactites. But instead of slamming into the potentially deadly obstacle, the blur shot straight through without any sign of collision between the two objects and came out on the other side without any sign of damage before it shot back the way it came and went through the obstacle again and again picking up speed each time soon making it look like someone had put a game of pong on with the computer playing itself and the speed set at five hundred times its normal setting creating a strobe light effect in the area.

This continued for another ten minutes before the watch began beeping again. The blur stopped going back and forth through the stalactites and shot down to the niche and stopped revealing a young black haired girl wearing a green hoodie and brown skirt which quickly walked over to the watch that was on the strawberry shortcake that acted as her bed and turned the alarm off. The girl studied the watch for a moment as she allowed herself to slip into a deep thought for a moment as she remembered the event that had led her to her position.

Flashback: Four Months Ago/ Candy Cane Forest

Vanellope von Scweetz ran through the forest of candy cane trees as she heard the barking of Devil Dogs getting closer. She didn't know exactly why she was being chased but she did know that five years ago everyone had been turned against her by some kind of massive change to the game's code by that strange King Candy character that she couldn't seem to remember having ever seen before that strange day when her knowledge of driving and other memories that she was no doubt currently unaware of left her and she became a Glitch. How did she know that part of her knowledge had been taken from her? Simple really, she was in a racing game and all of the other kids who looked like she did instead of as some kind of animated piece of candy knew how to drive so logic stated that she should have as well. But right now she could not wonder about that since she was currently being chased by the two security donuts and their tracking hounds.

Sighing, she muttered to herself "Okay, note to self: Don't go to the race track stands without some kind of disguise in place." Really, she should have remembered to do that with how everyone seemed to hate her guts now, but at the time she just wanted to study the strange new game character to see if she could learn anything about him and the race track was the only place she knew he would be that was open to the public after five months of trying to get close to the guy and she had slipped in her desire for any information on the guy at all. The man was harder to figure out than it was to crack open a jaw breaker boulder.

She was rather abruptly thrown out of her thoughts when her foot caught a root and she was thrown forward into a skid that would slam her head into the tree in front of her rather hard. Vanellope's eyes widened before she suddenly went right through the bark and stopped inside the five foot thick tree.

"What the dud?" Vanellope asked as she looked around the flowing mass of code that was around her and the shadowy depiction of the world outside of the tree. Then she heard the dogs barking getting even closer and she slapped a hand over her mouth and waited to see if she would be noticed. Slowly getting to her feet in anticipation of somehow being discovered, Vanellope watched as the dogs suddenly came into view and locked their 'sights' firmly on the tree. Vanellope gulped as they all surrounded the tree sniffing for her scent for a brief moment before as one they each let out whines and went back to their handlers while giving off the sense of their metaphorical tails between their legs.

Said handlers frowned before the tall doughnut muttered "King Candy is not going to like this."

The round doughnut seemed to nod what passed for his head and said "Come on, no point staying out here."

Vanellope watched them leave and then waited another five minutes before she stepped out of the tree. Looking down at her hands, she smirked as she said "Huh, this could be useful."

End Flashback

Vanellope shook her head clear of her memories and strapped the watch to her left wrist as she thought 'I've come a long way in learning what I can and can't do as a glitch. Now it's time to put all that learning to work.' Putting action to thought, Vanellope flash stepped out of the mountain and began racing across the surrounding terrain heading towards the castle where the exact center of the game and therefore the chamber holding the game's master code lay.

As she came close to the race track stands, she stopped flash stepping and began running as she listened to what was going on. When she heard the announcer begin the first race of the day, she looked at her watch and she smirked as she thought 'Right on time, that king character is going to be too busy racing all day to worry about what's happening at the castle.' Now secure in the knowledge that her biggest concern was out of the way, Vanellope resumed flash stepping and continued on to the castle.

Ten minutes later, Vanellope was in front of the NES controller that acted as the safe door for the code chamber looking behind her with a frown on her face as she thought 'Security is way too lax around this place. I didn't even have to use my ability to phase through solid objects to get here undetected.'

Shaking those thoughts out of her head for another time, Vanellope turned her focus back to the door in front of her. Gaining a small frown in concentration, she muttered "I hope this actually works on all doors like I think it does. I really don't want to have to phase through this thing." Then she softly clapped her hands in front of her once as she said "Glitch: Unlock." She then placed her right hand on the controller which pixelated for a brief moment before the buttons on the controller began to press themselves in as if an invisible person was punching in a code. When the last button was pushed, the controller rotated sideways and then shot into the left wall revealing a rather large black space with a group of glittering lights in the center held by two thick strands that were above and below the lights.

"Oh, that is impressive." Vannelope said to herself before she shook her head and leapt into the room. Feeling like she was moving through water, she gave an experimental breast stroke and grinned when she shot forward. Deciding to use the more mundane method for once, she began swimming towards the cluster of code in front of her and thought 'Alright Mr. Candy, let's see what we can find out about you.'

As she passed the outer cluster she hummed as she said "Alright, let's see here, Finish Line, Jumbotron, Winner's Cup, Cotton Candy Cloud, Sour Bill, ah! Here you are, King Candy." Finding the box she wanted, Vanellope flash stepped over and tapped the box twice expanding it into a window. But as she looked at the code, she noticed a very faint red outline in all of the symbols and frowned as she thought 'What is this? I've never seen any kind of code outlined in a second color before.' Then her eyes found the date that the code for the character had been put into the game and her eyes widened as she realized that King Candy had most definitely NOT been intended for this game since his code was put into the game only one day before everything had gone wrong. Couple that with the red tinting to his code and Vanellope now had an idea just what he was.

"Oh, sour milk, we've got a virus in the game." Vanellope said backing up a little from the code as if it could potentially attack her at any moment. Frowning, she thought 'But how could a virus possibly get in here and add its code to the game? Or for that matter, make everyone else think that he was part of the game and always was?' Frown growing she muttered "And for that matter, why am I the only one who remembers that he wasn't?"

Drifting back a little bit further from the malignant code, Vanellope began looking around hoping to find something in the massive collection of code that would give her answers. Spotting a locked chest floating amidst the boxes of code, she said "Hello, hello, what's this?" Shooting over to the chest, Vanellope swam around it wondering if whatever had been locked was the reason for nobody else questioning why King Candy was in the game. Shrugging once she reached the front again, Vanellope clapped her hands together and said "Well, only one way to find out. Glitch: Scan!"

When her right hand touched the box, the locked chest pixelated before it became transparent and Vanellope muttered "Well there's your problem." Contained in the chest were two floating boxes of code labeled Racers' Memories and Citizens' Memories. Staring at the two boxes of code that were kept separate from the rest of the group, Vanellope cupped her chin in her right hand and muttered "So that's why no one else thinks anything funny is going on, but why was I not affected?" Taking another look around her, she said "I've got to find my code. There must be something different about it that separates it from the other racers."

Thirty minutes later, Vanellope _still_ hadn't found her code box. Now thoroughly worried, Vanellope muttered "Okay Vanellope, if you're code is not with the others but you know for a fact that you were around before the virus came and you became a glitch, then that means that this virus probably did something with your code. Now, the only way he could have done that without completely getting rid of you in the process was removing it from the collective program. So, I need to look outside the collective."

Pounding her right fist into her left palm, Vanellope said "I need to expand my search." Turning towards the top of the collection of code, Vanellope flash stepped out of the mass and followed the top strand to the top of the chamber until she could see the entire room underneath her. Looking down, she ignored the group of flickering lights directly below her and instead focused on the sides of the room she was in. Two minutes later, a spark grabbed her attention revealing an unconnected code box near the side of the room and she smirked as she thought 'There you are.'

Quickly flash stepping over; Vanellope couldn't help the flinch that came with the sight of seeing her code box sparking as it tried to unsuccessfully rejoin the game's programing. She flinched again when she opened the box, this time in surprise. "By the code writer, I'm-" Swallowing the lump in her throat, Vanellope took a deep breath and said "This explains why that virus tried to delete my code. I'm actually the ruler of this game." Looking back at the collection of code boxes, Vanellope frowned and muttered "If I wasn't planning on kicking that virus in the milk duds before, I'm certainly going to do so now. And that's just to start, when I'm through with him he's going to wish his code was never made."

Turning back to her code box, she said "But exposing and deleting that _thing_ can wait until I've repaired this. It'll also give me time to come up with a workable plan for doing said exposing and deleting." Grabbing the code box and putting it under her right arm, Vanellope turned back to the program and flash stepped back to its center. Once there, she released the box before she clapped her hands together and said "Glitch: Repair!" Then she placed her palm on the box and watched in satisfaction as eight strands shot out of the top and bottom of the box and began connecting themselves with the rest of the program.

Then she felt a small shift of weight in the pocket of her hoody that acted as her 'item' pouch for all of her items. Feeling the round edges of several coins, she grinned as she pulled one out and said "Oh hello." Giving it a kiss, her grin grew as she said "I've missed you pieces of gold beauty so much." Pocketing the coin, Vanellope looked back toward the entrance to the chamber and said "Alright, time to get out of here and head to my next stop while the day's races are still going strong."

Putting action to words, she flash stepped back to the entrance, pausing only long enough to use her glitch abilities to lock the door before continuing to flash step out of the castle and towards her new destination.

Scene Change: Bakery

Vanellope sighed as she viewed the guard booth that gained entry to the factory via her Glitch: Zoom ability and saw the gnome that was acting as the guard was so deeply asleep, z shaped candy canes were floating around him filling the booth. Shaking her head as she brought her vision back to normal, she muttered "That virus has sure made the security in this game lax." Giving another sigh at all of the work that was ahead of her once she reclaimed her game, Vanellope shot out of the tree she was in and flash stepped towards the entrance and phased through heading towards the mini game area that would allow her to make a new racing cart.

Upon seeing the "No Glitches Allowed" sign on the door, Vanellope snorted and said "Well someone doesn't like me. First time I've been here and already not welcome on the premises." Shaking her head at that, Vanellope calmly walked through the door and stepped on the glowing red button that was on the floor in front of her. She grinned as the room lit up with buttons that had pictures of karts on them with the words Select Your Kart over them and said "Time to get to work."

Heading over to the one that held a tail fin on its end, Vanellope jumped and pressed the button and her grin grew as she heard a voice say "Welcome to the Bakery! Let's bake a car!" An enthusiastic "Heck Yeah!" later and Vanellope was happily separating the needed ingredients from the random bits of trash for the first part of the mini game. Sixty seconds later, she was grinning at the sight of her car as it rolled down the ramp attached to the oven and came to a stop in front of her.

Vanellope giggled like a school girl as she happily walked around the car taking in all of its beauty. The car's decor was probably the farthest thing one would find in a show room of a dealership that was hoping to sell cars but it's rather unique look just seemed to click with her.

She was rather rudely drawn from her happiness when the garage door that led outside suddenly rose and she heard a voice shout "Hold it right there Glitch, you are under arrest for breaking and entering! Come quietly or we will use force!"

Vannellope turned around and her eyes turned ice cold at the sight of the two doughnut security guards from the race track and a squad of other security personnel decked out in SWAT gear standing in the now open exit. All of the guards took a step back at the look of absolute fury that was in the girl's eyes as she said "You know, I am getting sick and tired of you guys constantly chasing me like I am some kind of criminal, when I've done nothing wrong, and yet doing absolutely nothing when everyone else picks on me. So no, I'm not going to come with you, quietly or otherwise. Instead, you're all going to the hospital!"

The next thing the security personnel knew, Vanellope was right in front of the taller of the two doughnuts and already had her foot in his face. The man was thrown backwards even as Vanellope flash stepped to her next target and slammed her foot down on his head dropping him to the floor even as she flash stepped away. For the next five minutes the room was filled with blue flashes as Vanellope tore into their ranks with no mercy and left them battered and bruised all over.

When she was finally done with releasing five years of pent up frustration, Vanellope flash stepped over to her car and hopped in. She gave one last look at the pile of security guards on the floor before she started the car and shot out of the garage entrance and towards the exit, heading towards Diet Cola Mountain to work out all the details for the next part of her plan.

Time Skip: That Night the Start/Finish Line

Vanellope listened to the usual speech the virus gave before each selection race with a frown as she waited by the bleachers with her car. Now that she knew just what that so called king was, she could pick up on the slight condescending tone in his words that she hadn't picked up the last time she had heard him speak. The frown turned to a smirk though when she saw the virus toss his coin onto the coin launcher that would begin the process of entering names for the race and immediately flash stepped with her car, placing it in the sixteenth spot for plan b if plan a didn't work before continuing up to the large cup and spun kicked the flying coin back into the virus' face sending him staggering back in surprise.

The entire area filled with the sound of surprised gasps as Vanelleope glared at the virus and said "I've got a bone to pick with you virus."

King Candy sputtered in shock at the fact that the glitch knew what he was before he regained his wits and said "I beg your pardon?! Where do you get off with calling me a virus you little glitch?!"

Vanellope smirked and said "I get off of it by seeing your code buddy." Pointing at a now pale king, the true ruler of the game said "Your code is outlined by red and was only added to the game a day before I became a glitch. In other words, you don't belong here. There's also the fact that I found my code ripped out of the code collective and the racer and citizen's memories of this game locked. Need I say more?"

The spectators of this event were whispering to each other wondering if the glitch could possibly be telling the truth. The virus meanwhile snarled at the glitch that he knew he should have had locked up the first day he came to this game and shouted "I've had enough of this! Guards, arrest that glitch and throw her into the darkest GURK!"

The virus' orders were cut off as Vanellope flash stepped into his guard and slammed an elbow into his solar plexus. As her opponent doubled over, Vanellope spun and slammed her other elbow into his back sending him over the side of his box. Flash stepping past the screaming king's form, Vanellope landed on the ground directly under him and did a back flip kick that connected with the virus' chin and launched him horizontally and into the man's car which crumpled around his collapsed form. Not finished yet, Vanellope flash stepped to the car and clapped her hands together as she said "Glitch: Undo!" Slapping her hand on the king's head, the glitch stepped to the side and to the surprise of everyone else there, their 'ruler's' form pixelated with red blocks before revealing a very different form composed of a grey skinned man wearing a white racing outfit with red stripes.

As her fellow characters began shouting out in surprise asking what was going on, Vanellope reached into the crumpled car and yanked the unconscious character out of the wreckage and slapped him, hard. As the now exposed virus groaned and came back to the world of the awake, Vanellope said "As rightful ruler of this game, for the charge of game jumping and take over, as well as attempted deletion of a citizen of Sugar Rush, I hereby sentence you to deletion." The virus' eyes widened but before he could say anything, Vanellope threw him up into the air before she clapped her hands and shouted "Glitch: DELETE!" Jumping up into a spin kick, Vanellope slammed her right foot into the virus' chest which sent him screaming towards the winner's cup only to burst apart into pixels of code that faded away ten feet away from the game's true ruler.

Landing back on the ground, Vanellope sighed as she turned around and saw everyone looking at her in shocked silence. Grimacing slightly as she realized that she had just told everyone that she was the true ruler of the game while their memories were still locked, she shouted "Everyone listen up, I know that you're questioning yourselves whether what I just said was true or not but there is a way for you to know for sure. When the virus tried to delete my code, he locked away your memories of everything that happened before he came to this game. The quickest way for us to unlock those is to perform a reset of the game. Thankfully for us, there is a reset function in the finish line, which I can access now that I've fixed my code." Putting action to words, Vanellope strolled over to the finish line and, under the wide eyes of everyone else, slammed her hands down on the finish line which began flashing before a pulse of white light shot out blinding everyone for a few seconds before it cleared.

When it did, everyone gave another gasp before as one the entire crowd bowed to her. Blinking at the sight, she said "You guys can get up, I'm not exactly the formal type." As her subjects did as told, she looked down as her clothes felt different and frowned at the sight of the poufy dress she was now in. Snorting at the sight, Vanellope focused her glitch powers and the dress pixelated before morphing back into her original clothes with a pink crown pattern stitched onto the hoodie's left breast and a small tiara on her forehead woven into her hair. Nodding in satisfaction at the sight, she turned her gaze outwards again and said "Drivers, approach me. Everyone else can leave if they want."

As her fifteen fellow drivers approached her, she scanned each one and took in how their color schemes had grown just a shade lighter. Putting thoughts of this just being more proof of the virus' tampering of her game, she said "I must admit your actions during the virus' reign disappoint me. It is said that children can be the cruelest and I've had personal experience on this." All fifteen drivers flinched and Taffyta, the main instigator of said cruelty immediately got on her knees and said "Please forgive us your highness, we didn't know-"

"It shouldn't have mattered Muttonfudge!" Vanellope angrily cut her off and stomped over to her as she said "Whether I was a princess, a driver, a citizen or even a glitch that truly was not part of the original code, your actions were those of nothing more than a schoolyard bully!" Now glaring down at the girl who was now looking up at her princess in fear as said ruler continued "You did your absolute best to make my life hell for the past five years, and for what, a chance to make yourself look good in front of your friends? Well guess what, the tire's now on the other axle."

Taking a deep breath as she took a couple of steps back and glared at all of the racers who immediately flinched back, she said "Brumblestain, Sakura, Zaki, Winterpop, Orangebloom, Wipplesnit, Bing-Bing, Plugpucker. Step forward." As the eight called drivers nervously took a step forward, Vanellope's features softened slightly and she said "You guys very rarely took part in Muttonfudge's actions, so you eight will be joining me as avatars tomorrow. Come back in an hour so we can make it official." The eight nodded their understanding and Vanellope focused her gaze back on the others and continued "All of you but Muttonfudge, Malarkey, Candlehead, Fluggerbutter, and Raindbeau may leave."

The nine drivers wasted no time in getting to their race cars and driving off. As the cars passed the remaining six drivers, Vanellope kept the other five pinned to the spot with a cold look on her face. As the last rumblings of the retreating cars faded, she said "The five of you were the worst offenders so your punishments will be more extreme than the others." The five drivers flinched as their princess continued "Each and every one of you will deposit all of your gold coins into the coin depository by the end of the day. Marlarkey and Raindbeau you two will not be allowed to participate in the avatar selection races for a month. Candlehead and Fluggerbutter you will not be allowed to participate for five months, now leave us."

The four drivers were quick to follow their predecessors' example and quickly left the stadium. By now the only people remaining in the area were the two drivers and Taffyta was beginning to sweat as Vanellope continued to look solely at her with the cold look still on her face. Taking a deep breath through her nose, Vanellope said "Sumerian law dictates that I should either declare you Persona Non Grata or leave you in the castle dungeon for five years for what you did." Taffyta flinched at that as Vanellope continued "But an eye for an eye only leaves the world half blind, so instead I'm going to be taking your hands as compensation." Seeing her former tormentor's confusion, she said "As of now, for the next five years you will be my personal servant, doing everything I tell you to. If I tell you to wear a frilly pink maid's outfit and sing I Feel Pretty while cleaning the castle from top to bottom with a toothbrush you will do so. You will also not participate in any avatar selection races for the next year. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, Your Majesty." Taffyta said with a down cast look on her face even as she inwardly felt that things could have been much worst.

Vanellope nodded and said "Good. Now I'm going to refamiliarize myself with the track while we wait for the other avatar candidates to return. You can either join me or wait in the bleachers until we are finished qualifying."

Taffyta rubbed her forearm as she said "I'll wait in the bleachers princess, I have a lot to think about."

Vanellope's eyes narrowed the slightest bit as she said "That you do." Walking past the downcast girl, Vannelope thought 'Hopefully she comes out of this a better person but I'm not holding my breath on that one.' Coming alongside her car, Vanellope hopped in and started the car's engine. As the car rumbled beneath her, a carefree smile slowly replaced her frown before she shot down the course finally feeling free for the first time in five years.

By the time the allotted hour Vanellope had given the chosen avatars was up, she was feeling much calmer and was much more composed. Something that said avatars were very relieved to see as Vanellope greeted them with a small smile as they stood in a row in front of her and said "Thanks for being punctual guys." Looking behind her shoulder at the course they were about to take, she focused back on them and continued "I've frozen all of the obstacles of the course for now considering that the avatars have already been chosen. This means that this will be a purely speed based race." The smile on her face grew as she said "Now I know that you've just remembered that I am actually your ruler but I don't want that to affect your driving at all. While we are racing simply treat me as another driver and do your best to win, understand."

As the eight drivers, nodded their accent, Vanellope nodded as well as the smile became a grin and she said "Great, then lets race!"

Time Skip: Two Years Later

Vanellope stared out at her kingdom from the balcony of her royal chambers with a slight frown on her face as she tried to figure out what was giving her a rather bad sense of foreboding. Standing beside her, Taffyta frowned as well as she could sense her princess' agitated state even as she took in the view that to her never got old.

The past two years had been brutal, but also well spent for the former bully turned royal aid. Not satisfied with simply having another cleaning lady added to her staff, a week after the deletion of the virus Vanellope had taken Taffyta under her wing. So whenever she wasn't helping the castle staff, the blond was receiving the lessons on what it took to be the 'get it done' person that made sure everything a ruler needed done was completed in a timely fashion. Taffyta had at first been confused why Vanellope was giving her these lessons considering how terrible she had been to her princess during the five years the virus had ruled Sugar Rush but when she had asked a week into the lessons Vanellope had simply given her a gentle smile and said that simply having Taffyta do chores for the next five years was a waste of her talents.

So now here she was, standing side by side with her ruler wearing a slightly fancier version of her regular outfit and a much better person overall. The two drivers had become close enough to be considered slight friends after a year of the lessons and the friendship had only grown at a slow but steady pace to the point where Vanellope could now trust Taffyta with some of her lesser personal problems as well as the professional ones. So to be honest, while she now detested what she had put her princess through, Taffyta was slightly glad as well since it allowed her to become so much better than what she had been before.

Taffyta was brought out of her thoughts as Vanellope's connection to the game let her know that something moving at an extremely high speed had just entered the game and her head jerked towards the entrance. Taffyta looked in that direction as well and the two drivers saw a small rocket ship streak through the air before it sucked in a cotton candy cloud and its engine exploded. Cursing as the ship began a nose dive, Vanellope pulled a small ear piece radio out of her hoodie pocket and put it in her right ear as she said "Taffyta, get an emergency rescue team together and get out there. I'm going ahead so have the team use the 20.7 radio frequency to coordinate."

"Yes, Princess." Taffyta called over her shoulder as she took off running inside the castle pulling out her own radio as she went while Vanellope launched herself off the balcony and began flash stepping to the crash site.

Scene Change: Escape Pod Crash Site

Vanellope spotted the wreck of the escape pod beneath her as she passed over it and quickly turned around and shot down to ground level. Landing on the nose of the pod, she frowned at the sight of no one in the pod and muttered "Did this thing malfunction and leave the game it was from on its own?" Shaking her head at the thought, she said "That'd be one dud of a series of coincidences if that's the case." Looking closer, she noticed that the bottom cushion of the seat was busted revealing a nozzle that probably acted as an ejection mechanism and thought 'Well, someone was here.'

Hopping off the pod, Vanellope landed on the ground and clapped her hands together as she said "Glitch: Scan." Placing her hands on the ground, Vanellope watched as in her mind's eye the trees surrounding her pixelated before changing into lines of blue code. Swiveling her head in order to take in everything, Vanellope spotted a green dot rapidly climbing one of the trees about half a mile away. Taking her hands off the ground, Vanellope cocked her head as the trees returned to their original form and thought 'That's weird, why would someone who just got out of an escape pod wait until he was so far away before he tried to see where he was? And why did he leave that radio I saw in there?' Now wondering if the pod's occupant had hit his or her head due to how he/she was acting, Vanellope called in the coordinates of the crash pod along with where their uninvited guest was and orders for the S&R team to wait at the pod before she flash stepped towards him or her and landed on the top branch of the tree.

Looking down, she saw a rather large man with extremely large hands looking up at her in surprise, or more specifically the tiara in her hair and the crown symbol stitched into her hoodie telling everyone who saw them that she was the ruler of this game. Vanellope instantly recognized him as Wreck-It Ralph from the Fix It Felix Jr. game that was opposite Sugar Rush and her eyes narrowed at the Bad Guy for a moment before she shook her head and thought 'Just because he is the Bad Guy of his game doesn't necessarily make him like the virus. See what he wants first then judge.' Coming out of her thoughts she gave the villain below her a small wave and said "You're a long way from your game mister Ralph. What are you doing here?"

"Uh, well you see, I didn't actually mean to come here." Wreck-It said rubbing the back of his head with one of his large hands before using the same hand to gesture back to where the escape pod was and said "Through a series of events I'd rather not talk about, I wound up in that escape pod over there and it threw me out in this game."

Vanellope frowned and said "So why did you decide that climbing this tree would be a better idea than using the radio in the pod to call for help?"

"Uh, well you see-" Wreck-It said before trailing off before his eyes darted to look at something on the end of a branch that was between the two for an instant before darting away and moving in every direction as if not wanting to draw attention to the object he had looked at. Frown growing, Vanellope looked at the object and her eyebrow rose as she saw a gold medal hanging from the tip of the branch thanks to its blue strap. Flash stepping over to the other branch directly next to said medal, she ignored the confused "What the brick?" from Wreck-It as she knelt down and grabbed the medal and brought it towards her face. Seeing the words Honor Commitment Pride written on the side facing her she flipped it and her frown only grew as she saw the words Hero's Duty on it.

Standing up and turning around to face the trunk of the tree, she looked down at the Bad Guy below her. Raising the medal and shaking it, she said in a stern voice "Wreck-It Ralph, this medal is from the Hero's Duty game that was plugged in a week ago. What is a character from a game that just celebrated its thirtieth year of being plugged in doing with this? As you know, game jumping in the wrong circumstances is a serious offense, trying to take over another game even more so. I've already deleted a virus two years ago that had temporarily taken control of this game; I'd hate to have to delete another character again. So, what are you really doing here?"

Wreck-It's eyes grew wide at the mention of deletion and he quickly raised his free hand in alarm as he said "Whoa, whoa, whoa, deletion?! I was just trying to win a bet so I could finally not have to live in the dump anymore!"

Vanellope's eyes narrowed dangerously and she crossed her arms across her chest and said in a cold voice "Explain, and don't leave anything out."

Time Skip: Forty Five Minutes Later

Vanellope sighed to herself as Wreck-It Ralph walked through the entrance to her game with the medal he had taken from the Hero's Duty game around his neck. They had talked for a good while about why Wreck-It had been so reckless and while she didn't appreciate the fact that the Bad Guy had been game jumping during the day putting not just his own game but another as well in danger of being declared Out of Order, tossing him into her castle's dungeon for at least a month like she wanted to would cause more problems than solutions. So after the S&R team had reached them and declared him perfectly fine she had him escorted to the entrance with the warning to never game jump in such a manner ever again under threat of in game suspension, something that she honestly had no problems believing the other leaders of the arcade games wouldn't mind enforcing if the situation ever came up.

Turning around to face the S&R team, she said "Sergeant, there is still a potential threat in this game. I want you to find it and make sure it is no longer among the living. I don't care if you have to have every member of the guard searching this game pixel by pixel, I want that Cybug found and destroyed by any means necessary."

"Yes ma'am!" The man said with a quick salute before he and the rest of his team quickly left to begin their new mission. As the team's vehicle rushed away, Vanellope gave Taffyta a put out look and said "I need a cinnamon spiced chocolate mint milkshake."

Taffyta raised a hand to her mouth as she gave a small giggle before she said "Yes, Your Highness." The two drivers then got into their cars and began the trip back to the castle with plans to try to put the previous events of the day behind them.

Time Skip: The Next Day

Vanellope looked at the five candy themed Cybug bodies set before her that were most definitely not getting up after what her guards had done to make sure that they stayed down. One body even still had a small amount of smoke drifting out of one of the holes in its body. Looking up at the sergeant she had put in charge of the search, she said "You are positive these things weren't able to reproduce any further than this?"

The sergeant nodded and said "Yes, ma'am. We had found the first Cybug just beginning to lay eggs and managed to kill it before it could lay more than four. We performed a thorough scan of the subterranean areas after killing them as well and came up empty. Further searches above ground revealed no other threats either"

Vanellope nodded before she said "Very well," clapping her hands together, she continued "Best get rid of the bodies then, Glitch: Delete!" She slapped the first body and moved onto the next as it broke apart into pixels.

As the last body broke apart, Vanellope sighed and muttered "This could have been a lot worst if that virus had been in charge still." Shaking her head at the thought, she began striding out of the castle calling over her shoulder "You and your men are dismissed Sergeant. Come on Taffyta, we have a qualifying race to get to."

"Yes Princess." Taffyta said and jogged after her princess with a small smile on her face as once again everything was as it should be.


End file.
